c4countdown

Thought this might deserve a thread of it's own. I wanted to keep the amount of options limited so I tried to pick options that would cover a broad range. Like super strength would cover bulletproof, heightened senses could include x-ray vision or super intelligence, body morphology could be the ability to pass through solid objects or Mr. Fantastic style stretching.

I didn't include super speed because I though teleportation would cover that but Telekinesis could also cover flying as you can telekinese your own body. I would choose Telekinesis as my power for this reason so let me know if you think that's a cheat because otherwise flying is objectively the correct answer.

Also, even though you're only supposed to pick one, feel free to discuss which superhero has the overall best selection of powers. (Although Superman should possibly be excluded from this because he just seems to have every power when it suits)

Spiderman for me has the best overall skill-set, especially in the Sam Raimi films as his Web powers are supernatural unlike in the comic where they are his own invention.

Either time travel or teleportation, depending on mood. Haven't a clue about comic characters, I foolishly thought Spiderman simply had shared some abilities with spiders, I suppose this could count as a superpower.

I'd have to think about the best one, but on the invisibility thing, maybe there's an assumption that people would just use it for perverted reasons. But it could be useful for e.g. listening to "top secret" meetings, like cabinet meetings. I think it wouldn't actually be very good on its own though. You'd still have to be able to get through doors etc. without anyone noticing your presence by bumping into you, and you'd only be able to use it where you have quite a lot of space. But if it came with the ability to pass through matter, it would be quite good.

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Fri Mar 19, 2021 3:26 pm I'd have to think about the best one, but on the invisibility thing, maybe there's an assumption that people would just use it for perverted reasons. BUt it could be useful for e.g. listening to "top secret" meetings, like cabinet meetings. I think it wouldn't actually be very good on its own though. You'd still have to be able to get through doors etc. without anyone noticing your presence by bumping into you, and you'd only be able to use it where you have quite a lot of space. But if it came with the ability to pass through matter, it would be quite good.

Plenty of time for that shit when you're dead.

Most people who have lost a loved one or are interested in history will plump for time travel

I wouldnt want it but immortality should be there

Can't believe time travel is that popular. Do people not watch movies? When does it ever work out? All that messing with causality and the dangers of paradoxes.

Could almost require another thread but for the people who picked time travel, how would you use it? When in time would you like to go?

Teleportation any day of the week. Would save lot of money on train fares

I was between teleportation and time travel. Teleportation clearly incredibly useful, even within my own lifestyle (not this year obviously - don't need to teleport within my house). Time travel though, while risky, opens up so many experiences that are completely impossible otherwise.

And even if you don't want to risk going back in time and causing a paradox, forward is arguably more useful. Even a simple cycle of go forward, learn a sports result, return and bet on it, repeat will do nicely (need to repeat in case your first bet changes other results).

I think anyone who votes for time travel has to explain how their version of it would avoid paradoxes.

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sat Mar 20, 2021 7:34 am I think anyone who votes for time travel has to explain how their version of it would avoid paradoxes.

Im not sure about paradoxes per se but it can only genuinely happen if there is a multiverse
I will accept the multiverse consequences.
Pretty selfish I know.

Another problem with time travel is that while you are off gallivanting through time you continue to age while everyone else in the "present" will stay the same.

I'm also imagining someone who had a time machine in 2019 who decided to travel forward to find the results of Euro 2020 to bet on but discovers the tournament isn't going ahead, catches covid without knowing and brings it back to 2019.

You have no idea what's going to be in the future. You could travel forward in time and the spot you land on could now be covered in lava or something.

Is this a thing going round Facebook? Is that why it's come up? Someone in my feed was asking when their superpowers kick in. Someone asked what they picked. Invisibility!

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sat Mar 20, 2021 10:27 am Is this a thing going round Facebook? Is that why it's come up? Someone in my feed was asking when their superpowers kick in. Someone asked what they picked. Invisibility!

I thought that was how cookies work

Mark James wrote: ↑Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:34 pm Can't believe time travel is that popular. Do people not watch movies? When does it ever work out? All that messing with causality and the dangers of paradoxes.

Could almost require another thread but for the people who picked time travel, how would you use it? When in time would you like to go?

I chose time travel. Obviously there's very different ways of like, how it works, depending on what film/tv show/book/whatever you're in, but the reason I picked it (which is very boring) is just so I could go back a few years and redo my life from thereon and make some changes, and then be able to go back again whenever stuff inevitably goes tits up again. I guess that wouldn't work for times before I was born or in the future or whatever but I haven't really thought it through

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Sat Mar 20, 2021 12:20 pm

Mark James wrote: ↑Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:34 pm Can't believe time travel is that popular. Do people not watch movies? When does it ever work out? All that messing with causality and the dangers of paradoxes.

Could almost require another thread but for the people who picked time travel, how would you use it? When in time would you like to go?

I chose time travel. Obviously there's very different ways of like, how it works, depending on what film/tv show/book/whatever you're in, but the reason I picked it (which is very boring) is just so I could go back a few years and redo my life from thereon and make some changes, and then be able to go back again whenever stuff inevitably goes tits up again. I guess that wouldn't work for times before I was born or in the future or whatever but I haven't really thought it through

Yeah, I guess I'm thinking too much of Back to the Future style where you go back or forward and return to the present. If it was more akin to the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time game where you can rewind time to redo stuff when you've messed up, that could be better.

Mark James wrote: ↑Sat Mar 20, 2021 9:00 am Another problem with time travel is that while you are off gallivanting through time you continue to age while everyone else in the "present" will stay the same.

I'm also imagining someone who had a time machine in 2019 who decided to travel forward to find the results of Euro 2020 to bet on but discovers the tournament isn't going ahead, catches covid without knowing and brings it back to 2019.

You have no idea what's going to be in the future. You could travel forward in time and the spot you land on could now be covered in lava or something.

From Ray Bradbury's Sound Of Thunder...
Basically Travis is giving a quick lesson on the food chain. If you get rid of one species, you end up eradicating the species that feeds on it.

________________________________________________________________

"All right," Travis continued, "say we accidentally kill one mouse here. That means all the future families of this one particular mouse are destroyed, right?"

"Right"

"And all the families of the families of the families of that one mouse! With a stamp of your foot, you annihilate first one, then a dozen, then a thousand, a million, a billion possible mice!"

"Well, what about the foxes that'll need those mice to survive? For want of ten mice, a fox dies. For want of ten foxes a lion starves. For want of a lion, all manner of insects, vultures, infinite billions of life forms are thrown into chaos and destruction. Eventually it all boils down to this: fifty-nine million years later, a caveman, one of a dozen on the entire world, goes hunting wild boar or saber-toothed tiger for food. But you, friend, have stepped on all the tigers in that region. By stepping on one single mouse. So the caveman starves."

Would those who want time travel merely want to observe events in-person or change things?

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Sat Mar 20, 2021 12:20 pm I chose time travel. Obviously there's very different ways of like, how it works, depending on what film/tv show/book/whatever you're in, but the reason I picked it (which is very boring) is just so I could go back a few years and redo my life from thereon and make some changes, and then be able to go back again whenever stuff inevitably goes tits up again. I guess that wouldn't work for times before I was born or in the future or whatever but I haven't really thought it through

For all the things that have gone tits up, many more other things have gone right. If you re-lived the last x years and avoided the mistakes, you'd make different mistakes instead. After a few revisits, you'd probably realise the biggest mistake is dwelling on the mistakes rather than the good bits, and wish you'd picked flying (the sensible choice) instead